High grade quartz products from magnetic separation and flotation of iron ore tailings
Neymayer Pereira Lima; Gilmara Lopes; Lais Resende; Livia Faustino
Abstract
More than 80 Mty of iron ore tailings have been generated in the Iron Ore Quadrangle last decades. Reverse flotation of quartz and magnetic separation are the main concentration processes on the beneficiation plants in this region, with SiO2 content on the deslimed tailings close to 90%, with potential to be destinated as sand for the civil construction industry. This paper investigated the possibility of obtaining high grade quartz (>99% SiO2 ) products from a typical iron ore deslimed tailing to be destinated to different markets, as alloy, artificial stone, glass, foundry, semiconductor, silicates and solar panel. A typical iron ore deslimed tailing sample was characterized by chemical, size distribution and mineralogical analyses using optical microscope and QUESCAM, showing the quartz as the main mineral and Fe-oxides the second more abundant mineral in the iron ore tailing, occurring almost 83% as free particles and 17% associated with quartz. Other minerals as phosphates and silicates were observed in associations with quartz. The addition of a high-intensity vertical magnetic separation stage to remove the Fe-oxides can increase the SiO2 grade to 97.46%. A final concentration stage by flotation using specific collectors was evaluated in this paper aiming at the production of high grade SiO2 products. Cationic collectors for quartz and alternative anionic collectors of Fe-oxides showed great potential to achieve premium quartz with 99.20 to 99.46%% SiO2 , 0.79 to 0.96% Fe2 O3 and less than 0.260% of other impurities with possibility to be destinated for glass, silicates, foundry and artificial stone industries. The presence of small associated and inclused impurities particles, mainly Fe-oxides, prevents obtaining higher purity quartz (> 99.46% SiO2 ). Leaching with different acids can be an alternative to remove these impurities and obtain high-purity quartz from iron ore deslimed tailing. This paper contributes to the circular economy through better understanding the iron ore tailings from the Iron Quadrangle by deep characterization methods, showing the potential to obtain premium quartz products.
Keywords
Referências
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Submetido em:
23/10/2024
Aceito em:
22/01/2025
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